Why are they called Jesus sandals? These popular strappy leather sandals have 2,000 years long history. From the relics first mentioned in the Middle Ages, across the discovery of the sandals hid in a cave in the Judean desert in the 2nd century C.E., to the modern design and production started in the 1960s by the company Nimrod, Jesus sandals have a complex and long lifecycle.

So here is how the story goes... In the 8th-century Frankish king Pepin, the Short mentions that he received the sandals of Jesus Christ from Rome, as a gift of Pope Zahary and Pope Stephen II. They were donated by the Popes to the Abbey of Prüm. In the Middle Ages, Jesus sandals were considered as one of the most important relics of the Catholic church, and although their political importance has been lost since that period, their religious relevance remains the same as it ever was. But it is important to mention that those sandals look differently from those today known to us as Jesus sandals. The donated sandals are the remains of an ornate fabric shoe, possibly from the Merovingian period.